Egan's Pink Beaded Rainbow Warrior

Lance Egan - October 2025

The Rainbow Warrior was my first commercially available fly pattern. It’s now over 20 years old! The first addition to the original was adding a tungsten beaded version (the original used a pearl glass bead). Next I made them in different colors. Red, black, and even an olive version existed at one time. Newer versions pop up routinely. During my competition fishing years I was constantly trying new flies, and I was being exposed to new ideas and tricks, one of which is wild colored beads. I found I didn’t have consistent success with many bead colors outside of the standard gold, silver, copper, etc… with one exception. Metallic pink. Metallic pink beads work really well. Add that pink bead magic to an already deadly fly pattern and you have the Pink Beaded Rainbow Warrior. It’s a great variation that is easy to tie and you likely already have most, if not all of the components if you tie Rainbow Warriors. Grab a pack of pink beads and some Wapsi rainbow sow scud dubbing and have your net readily accessible🙌